Mavis, an impassive woman whose moon face always bore the expression of a bewildered goldfish, was trying to follow the conversation whilst wolfing down as many biscuits as possible. She was employed at Larkins to clean the chalets and rarely saw Mr Mount. She had only come to the meeting in the hope of free refreshments.

‘What’s she going to do with his dinner?’ she asked Jeanie, spraying crumbs from her thick lips. Diamond, who was still hovering, moved the plate of biscuits out of Mavis’ reach before replying. ‘Meat and veg isn’t his dinner, you daft mare – it’s his manhood. She said she’s going to mince his cock and balls!’

Mavis digested this information with interest as she chewed a mouthful of Jammie Dodger. She was mildly affronted that Mr Mount had never so much as winked at her. Imelda passed Dolly a tissue. It looked as though Ruby might need one too at this rate. She had enough to cope with already, worrying about Treasure, and Imelda knew that Ruby had experienced Marty’s lascivious management style first-hand. Her office had an adjoining door to his.

‘Sara-Jade’s right,’ she said. ‘We need to do something, and I have an idea.’

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

1973

The knobbly knees paraded round in a circle and then lined up for inspection like a row of misshapen potatoes. It was a gloriously sunny Saturday and Larkins was a frenzy of fun activities supervised by the entertainment staff. Sara-Jade was leading a keep fit session in the pool with the mermaids, Jeanie was helping with the children’s races, Charlie was playing music for an outdoor tea dance, and Titus was calling bingo numbers with the grandiose gravity of an actor delivering a Shakespeare soliloquy. Cillian had been persuaded by Ruby to compere the Miss Larkins Lovelies contest, closely watched from the audience by Vivienne, who had denounced it as a ‘cattle market for vacuous bimbos’ but had decided to attend nonetheless.

Imelda was inside her booth with Grisha and Ruby, plotting.

‘Is Marty in his office now?’

Ruby nodded. ‘He pretends he’s doing paperwork for half an hour or so around this time, but I’m pretty sure he takes a nap. Especially when he’s had a couple of G and Ts with his lunch.’

‘Perfect. Let’s go!’

Outside Marty’s door, Ruby hesitated before knocking. She was nervous. She hated being alone with him. Her face flushed and she felt a trickle of sweat run down the back of her neck between her shoulder blades as though fear was leaking from her pores. Imelda squeezed her arm.

‘You can do this.’

Once Ruby was inside, Imelda waited until she heard them begin talking before knocking. Without waiting for a response, she barged straight in with Grisha by her side.

‘Oh, I’m terribly sorry, Mr Mount. I didn’t realise you were busy.’